IKD: 298 indictment against state officials, no prison sentence

IKD at a media conference has presented the “Political report of “criminalised”, which is the result of IKD monitoring and systematic research.

The IKD in this research report has reflected the level of criminalisation of each political party since the declaration of independence of the Republic of Kosovo until 31 May 2020.

IKD Executive Director Ehat Miftaraj has said that the report published documents the fact that the political scene has successfully installed the culture of impunity, which promotes to the extent that the more people charged with corruption and serious criminal acts, to be considered as the <x0-standard” of governance, promoting and trying to build perceptions in public that these behaviors are acceptable norms of conduct and are more moral and ethical norms of society.

Miftaraj during the IKD media conference added that as a result of policyisation of the justice system, it is manifesting itself in the direction of amnesty or persecution of certain officials, through no official investigation, even when there is suspicion of criminal acts, or the establishment of acts with no weak intent, unstable, professional or with a soft punishment policy of courts, when it comes to politicians. While politics has rewarded judges and prosecutors with salaries and super-high ventures totaling up to 40 thousand euros a year, justice is returning this favour to politics by promoting the culture of impunity.

Miftaraj, said this report disseminates the reality of political co-existence with justice, that the law does not apply and does not apply to all, that even among politicians there are systematically persecuted by the justice system, that out of approximately 200 politicians charged with only three high profile corruptions that have been sentenced to conditional and fine sentences, but not with effective prison terms.

On the other hand, senior researcher from the IKD, Leotrim Gashi, has said that the IKD in this reporting period has found 298 charges against 216 politicians, of which 210 cases of indictment have been filed during the time when they have been exercising official positions.

On the other hand, Gashi said that since giving up at least for moral reasons is a standard of good governance, in Kosovo and after declaring independence it is only exception. According to him, of 298 charges, only eight politicians have resigned, until in eight other cases, politicians have left their superiors after the indictment was filed against them.

Gashi, added that on the basis of an analysis of 298 charges, it turns out that in the gender aspect, male politicians are involved in greater numbers of participation in prosecution charges. 267 of them have been raised to 193 male-gender politicians, and of the other 31 charges are 23 female politicians, while in terms of the ethnic affiliation of 216 politicians, according to him, 186 of them are of Albanian affiliation, 22 belong to Serbian affiliation, four (4) are Bosniaks, two (2) from the Ashkali community and a (1) Turk and a (1) Goran.

According to researcher Gashi, of the 298 charges filed, according to IKD findings, 189 such have been filed against officials or former local-level officials, while 109 others against those on the central level, while he added that in this group of politicians, there are 55 cases in which high profile state officials are charged, none of whom has been sentenced to effective prison sentences, according to the firm form's conviction.

Gashi said that in 298 charges against politicians are included 351 criminal acts, with 204 criminal acts participating in the chapter of corruption works.

Of the 298 indictments, according to Gashi, by 31 May 2020 it has been achieved for 204 of them to have judicial decisions, where 174 of which are final decisions, while 31 others have ended only in the first-degree court, while 93 acts are being addressed in the first judicial instance. According to him, out of the 174 cases concluded with a formal form of bias, the charges have failed in 111 cases or 63.79%, while with condemnations they have completed only 60 cases or 34.48%, of which only nine sentences of effective prison sentences have been pronounced.

As for political affiliation of politicians, Gashi said that out of the 298 charges filed, most of them make up PDK representatives. 67 members of this party are in charge of 89 indictments, followed by the LDK with 37 people with 48 indictments, 22 AAK representatives with 32 indictments, 19 LVV officials with 26 indictments, 10 PSD members with 17 indictments, 19 members of the Social Democrat Initiative with 26 acts, and three AKR officials with three charges. In addition to them, other smaller Albanian parties and minority parties, which have had a total of 32 politicians with 47 acts, while there are seven persons of unidentified IKD parties making up 10 acts.

While IKD researcher Valentina Sahin-Graychev said that in order to decontain Kosovo politics, raise the level of good governance and trust citizens in public institutions, The IKD recommends that all public institutions seriously approach policy decontinently, so that people who have problems with the law are not part of electoral lists or public institutions.

Sahini-Graychev said the IKD recommends that public officials resign in cases where the same are in trouble with the law, and if that does not happen, the same should be released from office by their superiors.

Furthermore, the findings attached to the full report as well as photos from the IKD media conference.